5 Ottawa Lunch Picks Perfect for Winter

Fraser Café (Photo by fieldtripp)

We’ve been following Ottawa Magazine’s online weekly lunch picks of the best places for a midday meal this winter. If you’re visiting our nation’s capital, try these restaurants that received glowing reviews:

Craving something hearty to stave off the chill? Try Gy, in the historic Hull district, for rainbow trout with a mango-papaya salsa, flank steak with shallot or a smoked duck confit salad. On the lighter side are a daily sandwich, salad and soup.

For fresh and local with pizazz, try this bustling eatery whose simple menu of soups, sandwiches, salads and some heartier dishes is always changing with the season and always includes a flourish or two, like green apple in a jerked pork taco or goat cheese toasts with the lentil soup.

An intimate Gatineau restaurant known for its galettes—Brittany crepes made with buckwheat flour, which come in more than a dozen varieties, from traditional ham and eggs to the more adventurous venison with mushrooms and onions. And for dessert—what else?—crepes filled with butter, sugar, chestnut cream, blueberries and more.

Authentic Mexican tacos aren’t easy to come by in Ottawa (or in Canada, actually), so the homemade corn-tortilla tacos here—slow-cooked lamb, pork carnitas and other varieties—are worth trying. Also on the menu: chilaquiles, tortas and tostadas. Yes, it’s in a nightclub (with disco ball and DJ), but it’s a palatable quirk.